Redemption
by Xeia
Summary: FINAL CHAPTER! NeoTrin angst
1. Beginnings

"Are you ready?" Neo looked at Trinity  
  
"I'm always ready."  
  
In the Matrix. Neo always felt a strange connection with the people still plugged into the Matrix, a connection that persisted no matter how much he repeated Morpheus's words - they are part of the system, and that system is your enemy. Maybe it was because he was unplugged so late. Whatever the reason, he could not stop thinking of the people around him as people - he killed them, without hesitation as survival necessitated, but he never liked it.  
  
He glanced over at Trinity, pacing silently, leather-clad, beside him. With a pang, he realized he didn't know what she was thinking. Did he ever know? Yes, he thought, he usually did. But not this time. They were on a routine mission into the Matrix, a glitch that was a possible Realworlder - someone who sensed the Matrix and could be freed into the real world. Although Neo was the one, Morpheus still insisted on him going on these missions, still believed that freeing people was the most vital action they could take. But the last time they had tried to free someone, it had all gone wrong.  
  
* * *  
  
"What's going on?" the teenager asked, bewildered. "We want you to meet him. He will show you the truth" The teenager climbed into the car, and Trinity drove, destination Morpheus, Neo and the Exit.  
  
A destination never reached.  
  
A shot suddenly shattered the rear window. The kid swore, and ducked under the shower of broken glass. Trinity sank into her seat, and floored the accelerator, whole body tensing.  
  
* * *  
  
Ten minutes later Trinity had arrived at the Exit, with a written-off car and a dead teenager in the back seat. She had refused to tell them what had happened, and Neo hadn't pressed her. But suddenly, now, he found he did know what she was thinking. She was thinking of that kid, and that night, and the guilt was tearing her apart inside.  
  
But outside, she remained, as always, stone.  
  
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Hey guys, this is my first fanfic, please review! (Constructive) criticism is appreciated, so I can make my stories better. Any reviews welcomed!!! 


	2. Something wrong out there

They wove their way through the streets of the city, when Neo's phone suddenly rang, blaring its intrusion into the quiet of the alley. Trinity's head shot up, and they exchanged a look. An unarranged call invariably meant trouble.  
  
"Link?"  
  
"Neo, you guys have to get out of there. Something's appeared on the Matrix, I've never seen it before, I don't know what it is. Morpheus wants you out, so that we know what we're up against."  
  
"Where's the nearest exit?"  
  
"Corner of 20th and West. I'll be waiting."  
  
Neo hung up, and looked at Trinity. "Trouble?" she said emotionlessly.  
  
"Yes"  
  
"Lets go." They began walking, pace quickened, toward the exit. No running, don't attract attention. A fast walk, and they would make it. Trinity felt secretly relieved, a feeling she pushed down with shame. What had happened to the old Trinity, warrior, tough. cold? Was she turning into a coward? But now always with her, was the fear that she would get someone killed - and what if that person was Neo? She couldn't bear the thought, shook her head, quickened her pace. Neo looked at her quizzically as she pulled ahead of him. What was she thinking? He wished she would share her problems, missed the old Trinity, couldn't understand this (even more) silent, blank, person. He caught up with her as they neared the ringing phone box.  
  
"Trinity?"  
  
"Yes?" As she turned and looked up at him, he was struck suddenly by the incredible need in her eyes, the fear, the guilt. the desperation. And also the love - love for him. Without saying another word, he leaned in and kissed her quickly, passionately. As he stepped back she looked at him, smiling, a glimmer of the old mischief in her eyes. "What was that for, Cassanova?"  
  
"You."  
  
She grinned still further; and stroked the side of his face with her gloved hand. Then she nodded at the phone box. "Let's go. You first." Neo stepped up to the ringing phone, and as he raised to his ear, he turned and looked up.  
  
Directly into the barrel of a gun, hidden in the shadows.  
  
Trinity was watching Neo, saw his eyes widen, stepped forward, just as a huge bang issued in the alley and shot the glass of the phone box into thousands of glittering fragments, falling around the shattered handset of the phone, hanging limply by its cord. Destroyed. 


	3. The Man

"NEO!!" Trinity ducked forward, caught the broken phone in her shaking hands. She'd heard the stories. In the split second between leaving the Matrix, and entering the real world, whilst a mind was encoded into the phone, there was a danger that - if the phone was somehow interrupted, the connection broken -  
  
A sound behind her caused her to whirl, whipping guns from hip into both hands in one fluid motion. A huge form emerged slowly from the shadows. It was a man, dressed in the suit and glasses of an agent, but without the headset, and with the blank stare of an agent replaced with a glittering smile of pure, unadulterated malice.  
  
"Trinity." He nodded his head. "An honour." The smile widened.  
  
Trinity held the guns trained on his face, hands shaking. She had lost her glasses, and her blue eyes sparkled with anger and fear in strange combination. "You'd better hope he's not dead!" The man smiled still wider.  
  
"As must you." A change passed over Trinity's face, and her anger was suddenly replaced by a look of pain and despair.  
  
"Is he dead?" She asked in a small voice.  
  
"I don't know. And you don't know either." He cocked his head. "So the issue must remain undecided." He removed his glasses, his black eyes deep wells in his dark face - wells of darkness - evil. He stepped forward, leering, his huge form towering over her. Trinity stood her ground, unflinching. "Do you want to die, Trinity?" He lowered his face level with hers, smile gone. "I want you to." She spun, and began to run but before she had taken ten steps she had been grabbed by leather-clad forms, gripping her arms. She struggled, but against three she had no chance, and before long her arms were twisted behind her back, her head caught in a headlock, face pressed against the leather. She heard the crunch of the gravel as the man neared her, saw his suited front stepping in front of her, and thought suddenly of Neo - would she see him again? 


	4. Hacking the Mind

Neo's eyes snapped open as Morpheus pulled the iron spike from his head, and he sat up with amazing speed. "Send me back!" he cried frantically, "Send me back!"  
  
"What is it, Neo?" Morpheus said in his deep voice, alarmed.  
  
Neo calmed slightly "There was a gun, they shot out the phone and Trinity's still there." He turned to Morpheus. "You have to send me back." Link had been listening to Neo in amazement but at this he turned back looking for Trinity's signal on the screen.  
  
It was gone  
  
* * *  
  
Trinity felt her hair grabbed in a rough hand, her faced jerked up by her captor, and she was again looking into the eyes of the Man. He looked at her and sighed. "You have angered me." He lowered his face to her level. "I'M FURIOUS!!!!!"  
  
The roar was deep, primal and terrifying, and the sudden change in attitude and emotion took Trinity completely by surprise, leaving her frozen and speechless. The man began to pace, angry, hands clenched at his sides. "I wanted the One. Not his puppy, the One! And instead I have YOU!" He paused, and seemed to take a big calming breath. His voice again normal level, he suddenly smiled. "But you have your possibilities. I see you carry a burden - I believe I can have some fun with that. And I see your connection to the One". his lip curled in a sneer "love? Pathetic. However I may amuse myself with that too. lovers make great killers."  
  
Trinity's eyes widened, and she began struggling again, desperate to escape. The Man might have sounded crazy but there was no sparkle of insanity in his eyes, only a glitter of impish cruelty. She didn't doubt his words. He was out for fun, and she was to be the butt of his joke. Her and Neo. For the first time she felt a prickle of fear. Before she had been shocked, and frantic for Neo, but now - now the future was looming, and it was decidedly uncertain. Her gun was still in her hand, twisted behind her back, and carefully, gently, as the Man raved, she twisted it until it was pointed at the hands of the captor behind her. He was oblivious, gripping her tightly and listening to his master. The gun was at point-blank range  
  
Slowly, don't attract attention.  
  
She felt his grip on her arms relax slightly - she had stopped struggling. Now!  
  
Lightening fast she yanked the trigger, and swung her leg up as he loosened his grip to hit him square on the forehead. She swung her arm to thump the minion with her remaining gun hilt, and took flight. Reeling, the figures fell to the floor and enraged, the Man swung a foot into the ribs of his nearest footmen. The other raised to his shoulder a long-barreled object, and fired a shot. Trinity, twenty metres away, staggered as she felt the barb in her back then regained her balanced and kept running, slowed somewhat. Any second now and they would be upon her. Any second.  
  
Don't turn around, Trinity  
  
Don't look  
  
It was too much, and she turned her head for a split second, looking back through the deserted alleyway, she had to see!  
  
It was empty.  
  
* * *  
  
"Sir? May I ask you something?" the footman asked timidly.  
  
"You just did. Therefore we have a paradox, and how might that be solved?"  
  
The footman was silent, fear and puzzlement ghosting across his face. The Man looked at him and smiled.  
  
"Usually I wouldn't tolerate such an impasse, but paradoxes amuse me. What is your question?"  
  
"Why did you let her go?"  
  
"But I haven't let her go, Servant. I have had her the whole time. A freemind in the Matrix still exists as a program, able to be hacked like anything else. I have hacked her mind. Certain - discrepancies were apparent. An emotional virus. Guilt. I have seen her secret fears-and making them come true will be" he smiled "such fun."  
  
* * * 


	5. A Course of Action

It was a sombre group seated on the drive room of the Nebuchadnezzar. Link looked over at Morpheus, whose eyes were closed in silent thought, stroking his chin. Neo sat with his head in his hands.  
  
"Well?" Link broke the silence. Morpheus's eyes opened, and Neo lifted his head. "What are we going to do?" There was a pause.  
  
"I have to go in." Morpheus turned and looked at Neo, who was pale and stony-faced.  
  
"Neo-" Morpheus began  
  
"Don't Morpheus." Neo looked up at Morpheus, intensity radiating from his being. "You know I'm right. I have to go in and try to find her. I'll consult the Oracle, maybe she knows something. All I know is, here, we're doing nothing - but in the Matrix. Well." There was a long silence. Then-  
  
"All right" said Morpheus. "Let's go."  
  
* * *  
  
Trinity sat slumped in a doorway, still in the filthy back street. She felt - odd. She had been sure that she had been shot in the back, and yet, there was no wound. Only a torn hole in her leather suit, and a tender patch of skin. She looked up at the tops of the buildings, far away above her. It was hard to bring them into focus. Her head felt - what was the word? Woozy. Fuzzy round the edges.  
  
No! Trinity thought, I can't do this. She tried vainly to get to her feet, but her legs wouldn't support her and she flopped back to the ground.  
  
No, I have to find Neo, need to know if he's-  
  
The world was blackening, darkening, spinning all around her. She felt terribly exposed in the street, tried to cling to consciousness, tried to rise. But it was no good.  
  
"Neo" she gasped, and slid to the floor, defeated, as the darkness overtook her. 


	6. Mindscape

"Trinity" Neo gazed out the window of the car. Morpheus drove, only heightening Neo's sense of wrongness at the situation. Trinity should be here, and Trinity should be driving. A knot in the pit of his stomach that had been with him ever since he last left the Matrix was gradually tightening, as he had to increasingly suppress his worry, panic. Every second Trinity might be in danger. Every second Trinity might be-  
  
* * *  
  
TRINITY'S FLASHBACK "Dead! I'm gonna be dead!" The teenager panicked, flattening himself against the seat of the car.  
  
"No you're not" Trinity directed, the emotionless calm possessing her only betrayed by the whiteness of her knuckles as she ferociously jerked the steering wheel back and forth.  
  
"Please, I don't want to die!"  
  
"You're not going to die; I'll get you out of here. I promise."  
  
"I trust you"  
  
END FLASHBACK  
  
Trinity lay in the deserted alley, the quietness of night bathing the scene in eerie unreality. She was clearly unconscious, her arms and legs splayed at weird angles, her dark head lolling on the paving stones.  
  
Her eyes were wide open, gazing unseeingly at the dingy back steps of the deserted Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant, whilst inside her head, the Man toyed with her.  
  
MINDSCAPE Trinity stood in the centre of the main street. It was deserted, a gust of wind collecting some abandoned papers and discarding them further along the street. She was uninjured, her clothes whole and clean. She looked down at herself, then down the empty street. Where was she? She had been- she had been doing- what had just happened? Was this a dream?  
  
A loud squawking of birds taking flight from the other end of the street caused her to whip her head around, eyes widening at the sight of three agents walking slowly, in step, towards her. Her heart quickened, her fists clenched. No one but Neo had ever fought an agent and lived. And she was facing three.  
  
She tried to run, but she couldn't move. Literally. Her brain tried desperately to work the muscles that moved her legs, but some outside force was preventing it. Panicking now, she desperately struggled against the invisible bonds rooting her to the spot, fumbling for her gun in its holster and dropping it, so that it skidded just out of reach. She looked up, alien terror plain in her eyes. As the agents halted ten feet away, and raised their guns, she emitted a savage cry of pain and frustration, desperately trying to kick, fall, anything to get away.  
  
It was no use.  
  
The click of the agents guns being cocked in perfect unison raised her head again, as she stared down the barrel of death. A blast sounded from the guns and she had time only to think - Neo, I'm going to die! - When she was ripped from her invisible bonds by a violent impact from the side. Tumbling to the ground, rolling over and raising her head, she looked up to see Neo's face staring back at her, his hands clutching at three bullet holes in his chest, dark blood pooling around him. 


	7. Horror

Horror-struck, Trinity could only stare at Neo as he gazed at her, his eyes full of intense pain.  
  
"Neo. Neo!" She crawled over to him, cradled his head in her arms. He choked, a drop of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and looked up at her, eyes trying to convey a last message, as they fluttered, and closed. Trinity's mind was recoiling, horror and terror engulfing her mind. This couldn't be.  
  
Neo couldn't be dead.  
  
"Neo" she whispered. He lay still.  
  
"NEO!!!!"  
  
END MINDSCAPE Rain began falling. It was heavy, soaking quickly into the stones and drains of the alley. Runnels and currents began flowing, following the gradient of the slope as they ran in streams to the gutter, bringing with them debris of leaves and rubbish, nature and man. Streams diverted around the still, crumpled form of a woman, eyes open, sprawled on the street. Her pale skin was burned scarlet by the harsh sun, for a night and day she had lain there. And she continued to lie there, rain collecting in her eyelashes, running down her face, washing the dried blood of her wounds away to reveal the injury still fresh, as though forged not a moment before.  
  
And in her mind, Trinity was slowly, surely, being destroyed.  
  
* * *  
  
Neo felt an odd pang of fear as he faced the Oracle's door. What would she tell them? He glanced sideways at Morpheus, broad and commanding, as he knocked sharply, and then stepped back. Morpheus had been extremely quiet since they had first lost Trinity in the Matrix. He had not said anything, but Neo knew he was missing Trinity deeply, and hoping desperately for her survival. Trinity was the longest-standing member of Morpheus's crew, and one of his oldest friends, almost like a daughter. Without Trinity, the old crew of the Nebuchadnezzar would truly be dead.  
  
The door was opened by one of the Oracle's potentials, who ushered them into the kitchen. The Oracles was not baking her trademark cookies, or baking with a child. Instead, she stood at the window, puffing angrily at a cigarette, her oven cold.  
  
"I know why you're here" she said, back to them as she continued to look out the window. Neo and Morpheus exchanged a glance - this was decidedly uncharacteristic of the Oracle. Sighing, she turned abruptly to face them, forcefully stubbing out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray.  
  
"Well. Let's not beat around the bush" she looked at Neo. "You are here because Trinity has been lost somewhere in the Matrix, am I right?" Neo gave her a calculating look.  
  
"Yes"  
  
Her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry, kiddo, I truly am. This was not meant to happen. This was not part of your purpose, and I'm sorry for that. For you." Neo was silent. He wasn't sure he liked where this conversation might head.  
  
"Can you tell me where she is? What happened to her?"  
  
The Oracle sat heavily down at the kitchen table, lighting a fresh cigarette. "Her mind program was hacked by a program called the Man. At the present she is lying somewhere within the Matrix, exposed, whilst in the Man plays mind games with her. He traps people in their worst nightmare, until they cannot be sure of fantasy or reality. It is a deadly situation for you, Neo."  
  
"Me? Why, me?"  
  
"Because trapped in her mind Trinity may not know you, or what she's doing, and you may find yourself in a dangerous situation. You are the One. Are you willing to risk your life, and as such the fate of the world, the fate of the war between man and machine?"  
  
Neo was becoming angry. "Yes. If Trinity-" but he couldn't bear to say it and abruptly, turned and left the room, leaving Morpheus and the Oracle facing each other across the table.  
  
"My apologies" said Morpheus, removing his glasses and sitting down at the table opposite the Oracle  
  
"They are deeply in love, those two. I see that love may be the key to the fate of us all, in times to come." Her face was shadowed.  
  
"I hope that fate will not be the destruction of all" 


	8. The Agent's Vessel

Sorry about the delay guys! The reason is that I wasn't sure if this was too weird or not. I decided to publish it anyway, but if it IS too weird let me know and I'll change it.  
  
_________________________________________________  
  
Trinity was standing in the street, a fierce wind whipping back her coat and dark hair around flaming, streaming eyes, her gun pointed squarely at the forehead of the centre agent.  
  
"YOU KILLED HIM!!" Her voice was shaking, tortured.  
  
The agent smiled. "No, I think you'll find-"  
  
BANG!  
  
The bullet shot straight through the agent's brain, and he crumpled to the ground, shimmering as the agent left the vessel to reveal its true identity.  
  
"-that you did" said the remaining agent. Trinity looked down at the form at her feet.  
  
It was Neo  
  
She spun to look where she had left Neo lying. His form was still there, then it wobbled, and disappeared to leave her staring at the empty asphalt. She looked back at the agent she'd shot. It was Neo. Or it looked like Neo. It couldn't really be Neo.  
  
No.  
  
It couldn't be Neo.  
  
The remaining agent smiled and kicked at the still form on the ground. Its shirt fell open to reveal -  
  
Scars. Scars left from being shot eight times in the chest at point-blank range. His reminder of Smith.  
  
Only Trinity knew about those scars.  
  
"No. . . " she moaned, gun arm falling limply to her side. She had- she had-  
  
"You killed him!" mimicked the agent, eyes mocking. He stepped back.  
  
"You killed him."  
  
His lips curved in a smile and then, inexplicably, he was gone.  
  
Trinity didn't care. She staggered over to Neo and fell to her knees beside him. Laying her head on his chest she began to sob uncontrollably, great racking sobs that left her gasping. She called like a lost child.  
  
"Neo. Neo!"  
  
But there was no answer 


	9. Neo finds Trinity

Neo stepped into the street outside the Oracle's apartment block, breathing heavily. His insides felt like they had been filled with dry ice - shrivelling, cringing and burning painfully. He felt angry, not at the Oracle, but at the whole situation. It wasn't fair, they had done nothing wrong. There was nothing they could have done to avoid this cruel quirk of fate, so here he was, alone.  
  
It wasn't fair.  
  
Trinity wasn't dead. He knew this instinctively, yet. . . there were worse things than death.  
  
He couldn't bear the thought of Trinity in pain.  
  
Suddenly, a strange sensation swept over him, like he was being called. Like someone was signalling to him.  
  
*Neo*  
  
He looked around, was it a voice? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the odd feeling. Morpheus was upstairs still. Was it possible to imagine things in the Matrix?  
  
*Neo, I need you*  
  
He jerked his head. Again. It sounded like . . . but it couldn't possible be. And how on earth was it that he could sense her anyway?  
  
*NEO!*  
  
He stepped forward, walked off quickly, broke into a jog. Trinity was calling him, he felt inescapably drawn to her. All thoughts of Morpheus, the Oracle - even the Matrix -left his head. Somehow, he knew where to go, knew where he would find her. But she was in danger.  
  
Trinity! His mind screamed. Trinity! Danger!  
  
Run, Neo.  
  
Run.  
  
He pounded the footpath, turned the corner onto a main road. Startled shoppers and pedestrians jumped out of the way of the crazy man in the odd leather clothes as he tore a wide swathe through them. Left! Right, left, left. Right!  
  
Run Neo.  
  
He turned into a deserted dusty street, skidded to a halt outside the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant. Here. He felt the expectancy build up in him, weighed down by sickening fear of what he would find. Slowly he pushed through its solid, broken doors and dusty, deserted interior. The back door was held closed by a rusted padlock. He yanked it off, and barged the locked doors with his shoulder until he burst through the door into the grimy alleyway behind.  
  
At his feet lay the still, crumpled form of Trinity. She was filthy, covered in dirt and dried blood, eyes in a sunburned face gazing sightlessly up at the blue sky above. 


	10. and Enters Her Mind

Neo stopped, horrified, and then slowly knelt beside Trinity. Her leather suit was ripped and torn, bloodied scratches showing through. Her left eye blackened, skin split. He gathered her into his arms, shocked by her limpness, and gently stroked her dark hair, sticky with blood.  
  
"Trinity."  
  
He gazed into her face, completely floored by her wide open eyes. She was alive - he could feel her heart beating - but to see those familiar blue eyes with no recognition or life inside left him feeling physically ill.  
  
What if he'd lost her?  
  
He tried to muster his failing resolve. He'd found her, that was something, he had her with him physically. But how to rescue her mind?  
  
The Oracle had said she'd been hacked - her mind program hacked. Neo wasn't sure how that would work. Surely they'd need some device in order to access the main program data - a remote device. Embedded in her skin somewhere. And, he reasoned further, Trinity wouldn't have waited around to have her mind invaded. She would have run.  
  
He held her to him and gently ran his finger down her back, following the ridge of her spine. Her nervous system. Her control centre.  
  
Nothing . . .  
  
There! His fingers came to rest on a large red welt through a hole in the leather, And in the centre of the welt he felt a small, egg-shaped metal bullet, burrowed deep into her skin. He sensed instinctively that if he tried to forcibly remove it he would hurt Trinity terribly.  
  
He surveyed the code of the device, red in a sea of green. Different to the surrounding Matrix, but still computerised. Neo was the One. He could do things other people couldn't.  
  
He placed his hand on the device, reading its code carefully.  
  
And entered Trinity's mind. 


	11. A Decision

Trinity lay resting her head on Neo's chest, unaware of whether minutes or hours had passed as she felt Neo's skin grow cold beneath her cheek. She felt like her heart was physically breaking, a great searing, tearing pain that engulfed her chest, making her choke and gasp.  
  
It was unbearable.  
  
She sat up and looked at Neo. So still, so cold. his beautiful brown eyes closed forever. And she had done it! She had.  
  
She had killed Neo.  
  
She said it over in her head, trying to make herself believe it. She stroked his cheek, icy cold.  
  
Suddenly, she had a flash of memory. Of Neo lying like this, plugged in, as the Sentinel stood over them like some sort of macabre angel of death. She had thought he was dead then. but he wasn't. He had survived - until now.  
  
"Oh my god!" Suddenly she realised it, that he was dead and not coming back "Oh my God!" Tears rolled down her face and she kept gasping, choking, "Neo! Neo! Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no. No! Neo! She climbed shakily to her feet, and stumbled back. She couldn't stand this.  
  
Her gun lay on the ground where she had dropped it. She grabbed it, reloaded it with trembling hands. She couldn't stand this, couldn't bear this pain for one more second. Slowly she raised the gun to her temple.  
  
With a last sob, she quashed her tears as she determined to be strong at the last. 


	12. I Love You Trinity!

The moment Neo touched the device, the outside world vanished and he felt himself being sucked downwards, amidst millions of swirling numbers and codes that enveloped him in a sea of green and black. Far beneath him he could dimly make out hunched shapes in the wild swirling depths, and they rapidly grew larger, suddenly flattening and forming into the three- dimensional world he recognised as the Matrix. The swirling of green codes left him, and he staggered sideways, momentarily thrown by his dizzying ride. Before him he could see a slender form, back to him, slowly raising a deadly black gun to her temple. . .  
  
"TRINITY!!! No! Stop!"  
  
She halted, stiffening, then slowly turned. Neo's whole being reached out to her, it was Trinty, HIS Trinity, he wanted to hold her and never let her go –  
  
But then he caught sight of her face, and all words died within him. Her eyes were completely blank as she gazed at him, no emotion at all registering on her face.  
  
"Trinity?" She looked down at the gun in her hand, turning it meditatively. She glanced behind her, at the empty footpath, and her shoulders sagged visibly.  
  
This wasn't right. He took a step forward. "Trin? What-" She continued ignoring him, still staring blankly at that same stretch of path. At something she could not see. He looked at her helplessly, made to step in front of her unseeing eyes.  
  
"Stop!" Trinity held up a hand at him, acknowledging him at last. She looked at him, familiar fury registering in her eyes. "Don't touch him."  
  
Neo held out a hand and, as though coaxing a wild animal, reached out slowly and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Who, Trin?" She jerked away the moment he touched her, but that touch was enough. Suddenly, for a split second, he saw the shadowy figure sprawled in front of her. Saw who he was.  
  
"Oh my God. . ." Neo paused for a second, shocked. Trinity thought – thought he was-  
  
Trinity had had enough. She stepped away, and matter-of-factly cocked the safety catch of the gun, turning it to herself.  
  
"Trin, NO!" Neo lunged at her, grabbed her hand, tried to wrest the gun away from her. Like lightning Trinity swung her leg up over her head and kicked him square in the forehead. Reeling, Neo staggered back as Trinity tightened her hold on the gun and whipped level with his face. He froze.  
  
Trinity's eyes were wide and tear-filled, her face blazing with desperate anger. The hand holding the gun shook uncontrollably. She was very close to breaking point. "Leave me alone, all of you!" she cried, her voice high and unnatural, with a breathtaking fury to it.  
  
Neo straightened up. He held up a hand, reaching out to her. "Trinity. It's me. I'm Neo." Trinity's faced wrinkled, she let out a strangled sob, but held the gun trained on his head. Neo took a step towards her, and then another. "Trinity. I'm Neo." She cocked the gun, her hands no longer as shaky.  
  
"The hell you are." He stopped 6 feet away, and held up both his hands, to her. "Trin. . ." His voice was filled with pain, his eyes pleading. He began again. "Once I was shot down by Smith. You brought me back, Trinity." Her hand lowered the gun, without her noticing, as she gazed at him. "You said to me, that the Oracle told you, you would fall in love with the One. And that I couldn't be dead." Tears spilled over onto her cheeks. "I love you Trinity." The gun dropped from her hands. "I love you Trinity!" She took a halting step towards him, eyes desperately hungry.  
  
"Neo?"  
  
She reached out a hand to his face, and then collapsed unconscious in his arms, overwhelmed at last 


	13. Endings

FINISHED!!!  
  
Thanks to all you guys who reviewed, especially Protectress of Dalidon for reviewing every chapter! It was soooo helpful to read encouraging stuff. Sorry the whole story took so long, but school seems to be a dominant fixture in my life... anyway, heartfelt thanks to all those who took time to review, it made the whole thing worthwhile.  
  
Thanks  
  
As Neo lunged and caught Trinity's crumpling form, the world around them again began swirling in the same sea of black and green, coded numbers. As though sucked into an enormous vacuum, his surroundings pulled away and Neo was once again at the back of the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant, the unconscious Trinity in his arms. But now her eyes were shut and she was breathing deeply, as though asleep. For a while Neo held her in his arms, gazing into her face. Warm relief flooded him, and he savoured the feel of her warm body, beating heart, and slow sighing breath.  
  
His phone began ringing shrilly, and he raised it to his ear.  
  
"You found her! Is she okay? What happened? You disappeared as well, and Morpheus was going nuts, and then-" A deeper voice cut in. "Link, please direct them to the exit." "Sure Morpheus, same as before Neo, corner of 20th and West. Phone's been repaired and everything." "Alright" Neo closed his phone. He gently lifted Trinity as he stood, slightly shocked by her lightness, and walked through the streets to the phones box. Many people gave him curious looks, the man in leather and the bloodied woman. But the phone ahead was ringing, and soon he would be free of the Matrix.  
  
He placed the phone against Trinity's ear first, felt her form dissipate from his arms, and then hung up the phone until it rang again. And Neo sighed with relief as, finally, he and Trinity left the Matrix and returned to the Nebuchadnezzar  
  
As he opened his eyes Neo felt Morpheus yank the plug from the back of his head. He sat up quickly and looked around for Trinity, but her chair was empty.  
  
"She ran off" replied Morpheus in answer to Neo's questioning look. "I think she's gone to the engine room".  
  
Trinity was sitting in the darkest corner of the engine room, staring ahead, lost in thought. Neo said nothing, just crawled in the space and sat next to her. And waited.  
  
"I was hiding from you" Trinity said eventually.  
  
"I know".  
  
She still didn't look at him. "I had those nightmares for so long... but they were almost worth the relief I felt waking up. With you breathing next to me. Alive. I kept wanting to wake up, this time... but... I didn't. The nightmare, it just kept going, and... I killed you"  
  
She trailed off. In the darkness, Neo wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. For a moment she was rigid, and then she folded into his embrace, a small sob escaping her throat. But when she spoke next, her voice was calm, and strangely cold.  
  
"I killed him. That teenage boy."  
  
Neo finally spoke. "I knew you did."  
  
"I'm a murderer..."  
  
"We all are. But out of necessity."  
  
"I know that. It just... he was so young"  
  
"I know."  
  
"We were in the car, and then suddenly... he changed and there was an agent sitting next to me. He grabbed me by the throat and I swung the wheel... Somehow I grabbed hold of my gun and the instant I pulled the trigger at his forehead, it was the terrified eyes of a fifteen year old staring back at me. But it was too late, too late... and I killed him.  
  
It's been in my nightmares ever since."  
  
For a while they lay there, simply holding each other.  
  
"I'm sorry, Trin."  
  
He could sense her smiling at him through the darkness, felt her hand on his cheek.  
  
And it was enough. 


End file.
